A day in the mountains

Headed up to the mountains with Jen yesterday. She apparently hadn't been up there yet even though she has been in Denver for over a year.

Our mission was to find mammals. Specifically we were "hunting" bison (buffalo), elk, and mountain sheep (rams). First stop, the Buffalo viewing area, and there were plenty of bison there as hay had been put out to feed them. They're captive though so that wasn't the most impressive thing. She was pretty happy about it though. Then on to Evergreen to the elk reserve area, none there. Then to Echo Lake, full of snow shoe-ers. Then to Georgetown. We didn't see any sheep at the sheep viewing area, but we did see the Georgetown Ice Races.

After that we had some burgers in town and headed home. Inidentally I was upset to find that the Red Ram restaurant is now closed, but the Raven Hill Mining Company Restaurant (next door) was pretty tasty and made a mean very rare cheeseburger. Unfortunately the ambiance seems much more fake.

Hiking is perilous

Hiking is perilous
Originally uploaded by gamp

Went hiking yesterday at the top of Mt Evans. Hiking might be a stretch because I drove up the mountain, but there is that last 100 feet of elevation or so, which I promptly jumped off of. Got some silly pictures. My brother Donald came with me, which is good, because he rarely gets out of the house.

Boulder Second Fridays

I'm heading to Boulder Seconds Fridays - a showing of Boulder artists and work studios, but don't seem to see anything on the web about it, so I'll just paste some info about it here.

from Colorado-BM listserv:
Our regularly scheduled Second Fridays event will be happening this Friday, the 10th, in Boulder at the Phoenix Asylum (2510 47th St., Unit D/DD--Same building as Alpine Sports and around to the right) BurnWorks. (you know where it is--right next to The Asylum).

7-10pm

Monthly Art Showing in the spirit of First Fridays.

Come check out art from the Phoenix Asylum Inmates, BurnWorks crew and other local artists! Connect with community and friends. Bring your checkbook in case you LOVE something and just must have it.

This is a FREE event (donations to BurnWorks and Phoenix Asylum are always appreciated.) Donation beer/wine bar for those over 21.

If you are an artist and wish to DISPLAY or PERFORM art, please contact the following. Regular hours for artist set-up are April 9 from 6-10 at the Asylum:

Wheels of decay

Wheels of decay
Originally uploaded by gamp

I haven't made up my mind about the use of photoshop and other techniques to alter photos. Usually I just like the original photography. But, I've been messing around with HDR a bit and now I've gone and let one of my photos be processed with a texture layer. Oh my goodness. Am I officially a flickr whore? Probably.

what do you think? Is it much better this way?

diy cable release

pentax k100d super

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Tractor

Tractor
Originally uploaded by gamp

I've been messing around with HDR photography. I don't like things to be too surreal, but some of it is cool.

Erik and I went exploring in the plains of Northern Colorado and came across a retired man name Leo that had 45 tractors in his yard. This is one of them.

We also explored the nearby town of Dearfield, which used to be an African American "colony". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dearfield,_Colorado


Incidentally we made an interesting discovery that a number of county roads are now private roads and you can be charged with trespassing for driving on them. This is disturbing to me. In this area the roads are apparently owned my Anschutz.

Zombie Cheerleaders

Zombie Cheerleaders
Originally uploaded by gamp

The Halloween party at The Bomb Factory in Denver featured many zombies and some cheerleaders.

Rooftop Snipers

Rooftop Snipers
Originally uploaded by gamp

Here we see some secret service snipers and spotters. These guys were visibile to everyone. At one point though a hidden sniper came out of a roof top to my right and pointed his rifle in my general direction. As soon as I saw him he walked back away on the rooftop. Maybe I look scary with my zoom lens. This is the Obama rally in Denver on 10/226/2008. I believe there were over 100,000 people there.

It snowed

I looked out of my door this morning and saw snow

Santiago Mill

Waldorf Mill
Originally uploaded by gamp

This is a part of Waldorf, Colorado - Ghost Town

Their are abandoned ruins, gold mining history, and one of the best preserved gold mining mills that is accessible (via 4wd)

other sites that discuss Waldorf:
home.comcast.net/~TommyPages/Waldorf.htm l
travel.webshots.com/album/554536618fuGnQ W
www.flickr.com/photos/carpeoreo/26025775 80/

The image here is an "autostitched" image created by combining multiple images of the site into one distorted cool looking and ominous photo.

More Belize photos, featuring the evil gutter crab! click click click http://ping.fm/hCpUI

Tonight's confluence park fire spinning pictures are up, rear curtain flash style http://ping.fm/zBakc

Tonight's confluence park fire spinning pictures are up, rear curtain flash style http://ping.fm/zBakc

Posted some photos from Belize, here is a photo and photosynth of the Jaguar Temple http://ping.fm/jTIED

Skaguay Revisited

3D Pelton Wheel
Originally uploaded by gamp

I went back to the skaguay hydroelectric plant, the abandoned power plant that is only reachable by 5 miles of the worst hiking I can imagine. This time I attempted to take the easiest and wettest route I could find, and it was much better and less deadly. I also went with another explorer, jmt3x. We got farther than I had before, going beyond the power plant up the hill through the tunnel, across a bridge that won't be there for long, and to the site that used to have a large trestle. I'm still sore from the trip, but hopefully I have some good photos to show for it. Pictured here is a 3D anaglyph of one of the pelton wheels.

first visit: http://redphone.blogspot.com/2007/07/skagway-power-plant-found.html

Cheeseburger Monument

I've been reading through Ramble Colorado by Eric Peterson and I came across a cheeseburger monument. Apparently one of the places credited with the first cheeseburger, and the place that got the trademark was the Humpty Dumpty Barrel Drive-In. It was also Colorado's frist drive-in. Louis E. Ballast trademarked "cheeseburger" on March 5, 1935. That's apparently the last that was heard about it. The site of the bbq and burger restaurant is now a key bank. You too can find the stone at 2776 N Speer Blvd in Denver.

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Rating: 0 of 5, review(s)

Jami and I

Jami and I
Originally uploaded by gamp

Jami came up for the weekend and we saw as much of Colorado as we could. Here we are near the Aspen visitors center at Rocky Mountain National Park. We also drove up Mt Evans, rode the motorcycle along the South Platte River, ate sushi at Fontana, pub fare at Tommyknockers, and crab at my house.

Apogaea 2008

Fire Kiss
Originally uploaded by gamp

I'm still uploading photos from this years Apogaea festival, but I think most of the best are already up. This one I've title "Fire Kiss" and is a silhouette of a Erica kissing another reveler while spinning flaming poi.

It was a great event this year, lots of people (not sure how many but hundreds, lots of dancing and fire, and what more could you ask for?

The Bohners also burned their whole shack front after the giant squid effigy was torched. Good times.

Destroying a car

The car the next day
Originally uploaded by gamp

At Apogaea this year, Colorado's regional burning man event, there was a camp called Metal Camp. Metal Camp appeared to mostly be sponsored by the Iron Anvil, a Denver steel fabrication and art shop. Well, they had an "art car" of sorts. No, it didn't drive. But what it did do was provide lots of entertainment.

They set up the car on a tarp and laid several tools of destruction around the perimeter. At first only one person was allowed to hack at the car at a time, but eventually pandemoniam took over. The tools included sledgehammers, a double headed axe, an about 60 pound gear on a swining pole, and a 100 pound splitting device.

On Friday the pounding began, and people took turns destroying the vehicle. At first I was napping in my tent and I heard windows shattering. I eventually made it over and learned the ways of the double headed axe. After trying to knock some car parts off I decided to make a nice cut through the bumper, then I went on the roof and did what I could to split the entire thing in half. It was then finished off with the 100 pound splitter. I also had some fun with the big gear tool.

The destruction actually continued into Saturday, when at some point some over ambitious people flipped the car, spilling gasoline into the pristine earth. This ended everyones fun.

Actuall later some people hacked at other parts and even a neighboring car. Joy!

If you head by the Iron Anvil on a first friday you may be able to break something smaller with these tools. Have fun.

Circle of Fire

Circle of Fire
Originally uploaded by gamp

Last night at confluence park there were more people in attendance than ever before. Dragon even made a speech about it. Unfortunately they didn't want to leave when the park closed at 11 and that could become a problem. Mostly the problem is with some new drummers who don't seem to care if neighbors complain, and in fact invited the police to come and stop them. So we may not have fire spinning at the park for long.